Dr. Robert Epstein, the senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and a panelist on Breitbart News’ “Masters of the Universe” town hall on Internet freedom, joined SiriusXM hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak on Thursday’s Breitbart News Tonight to warn of technology firms’ growing political power.
Epstein pointed to Google’s dominance of the Internet search market.
“As it happens, 90 percent of search around the world is conducted on just one search engine,” noted Epstein. “There’s never been a precedent for anything like this, ever. You’ve got one company that’s controlling search around the world.”
Epstein added, “That’s a power to shift opinions that’s in the hands of a handful of people in one particular town in Northern California, affecting people around the world, with no way to counteract what they’re doing, with no competitors out there.”
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Mansour recalled Facebook’s recent censorship of PragerU’s content. “I find it hard to believe it was completely accidental,” she said. “[Facebook knows] how effective we were in the 2016 election in spreading the message to Trump voters. … Maybe I’m being conspiratorial, but I think they’re just playing games with us as we’re getting closer to the election.”
Epstein concurred with Mansour’s speculation: “Is democracy dead? Because if it’s true that they have this power, then democracy really is an illusion. I happen to agree with you on a key point, I think that these companies held back to some extent in 2016. They held back on their power to shift votes. I don’t think they’re going to hold back now.”
h/t LSR